Field of the Invention
The invention belongs to the technical field of suspension bridges, and more particularly to a method for fabricating a wire strand from parallel steel wires for a main cable of a suspension bridge.
Description of the Related Art
Suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The suspension cables, also the main cables, are made of large diameter high strength zinc-coated steel wires.
Conventionally, the suspension cables are fabricated mainly using air spinning (AS) method. In the method, between 400 and 500 steel wires are formed into one wire strand, and between 30 and 90 wire strands are fabricated into one main cable. As such, one single wire strand requires large anchoring tonnage, and the anchoring space is compact. In addition, the main cable installation is labor-intensive and time-consuming, and the main cable is affected by weather conditions.